Scottish Conservatives

The Scottish Conservatives is the affiliate of the UK Conservative Party in Scotland, founded in 1965. The party described itself as a "patriotic party of the Scottish center-right", and it was the successor of the Unionist Party of Scotland, the dominant party in Scotland during the 1930s and 1950s. In 1959, the Unionist Party was defeated by the Scottish Labor Party after the "first past the post" electoral system was adopted, and the Unionists merged into the Conservatives in 1965 to become a major conservative party. In 1997, the party did not hold any seats in Parliament, and it returned only one seat in every election up to, and including, 2015. In 2017, it had its best performance since 1983 when 13 Conservative MPs were elected, and it became the largest opposition party in Scotland. The party supported British unionism, and it therefore opposed the Scottish independence referendums.